Teachers, counselors and parents from Gadsden City Schools' Title I schools continue today in a workshop designed to boost parental involvement to help children succeed.

By Donna ThorntonTimes Staff Writer

This post contains corrected information.

Teachers, counselors and parents from Gadsden City Schools' Title I schools continue today in a workshop designed to boost parental involvement to help children succeed.Patty Bunker and Steve Hosey, of Family Leadership, presented the training.“What we're trying to do is build parent involvement,” Gadsden City Schools' Title 1 and Elementary Coordinator Nancy Blackwood said. “That's one of the major things we need to do.”The workshop featured interactive training, with exercises for participants to help bring home lessons in positive parenting, creating confident kids, communication that works and other topics. Those included discipline and providing what children need to achieve.Bunker said Family Leadership is a national program that has been in existence for 17 years and has had more than 90,000 parent-graduates in more than 70 school districts.“The whole purpose is to help parents to be more effective in their role as parents and as partners with schools,” she said. The program is designed to develop not only parenting skills but also leadership skills among parents, which will help foster more parent involvement.Hilda Moody, a counselor at Donehoo Elementary, said improving parent involvement will be very helpful in Gadsden's schools. She said the workshop offered interesting and relatable training. She said it helped instruct parents in how to talk to their children and the importance not only of asking children how their day went or what they learned, but then really listening to them as they share.Hosey's background might seem unusual for someone leading teacher training. He was a right fielder for the San Francisco Giants.He and his wife Deborah were involved in marriage counseling and pre-marriage counseling in their church, and becoming involved in counseling parents was a good next step for them.Hosey said the training offers lessons in self-esteem issues, study skills and social media — something that wasn't an issue when today's parents were children.“I've got a 19-year-old and a 10-year-old,” Hosey said, “and one thing I can tell you is my 10-year-old is not getting a phone until he's 19.” The workshop will deal with how to help children use social media responsibly, he said.The training offered in Parenting Partners addresses a range of topics, he said. There is going to be something in it that will benefit everyone.“That's the beauty of it,” Hosey said.Emma Sansom Middle School teacher Elizabeth Wilson said the school plans to introduce the program to parents through Title 1 meetings — the meetings the school has with parents to explain how the federal money the system received through Title 1 is being used. She, like other teachers from ESM, was enthusiastic about the program.Krystle Freeman, parent to a 7-year-old, a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old, was as well.“I think it is necessary for every parent,” she said. Her two younger children attend Oscar Adams Elementary School and her 10-year-old is a Litchfield Middle student. From what she had learned in the first day of the training, she said she felt she was “getting there,” to the point she would be ready to take the same training back to other parents at the school.Tameaka Looney's 7-year-old and 9-year-old are Adams students. She said through the training she was learning how the way she talks to her children can help them to have positive self-esteem — something parents may not realize.She said her oldest child had been the victim of bullying — another topic that will be covered in the training.Looney said she's anxious to help other parents with these lessons also.“I think this will be very helpful, not only for the school, but for the community,” she said.Bunker said after this introduction of the program to Gadsden schools, Family Leadership counselors will be checking back with facilitators to find out how the program is going and will be available to help as it is implemented.Training continues today, and the group training will begin in Gadsden's Title I schools in the coming school year.

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